[rad-green] Lessons to Learn From the Coup in Bolivia

*https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/11/lessons-to-learn-from-the-coup-in-bolivia.html*
<https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/11/lessons-to-learn-from-the-coup-in-bolivia.html>

*Moon of Alabama           November 12, 2019*
Lessons To Learn From The Coup In Bolivia

The coup in Bolivia is devastating for the majority of the people in that
country. Are their lessons to be learnt from it?

Andrea Lobo writes
<https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/12/mora-n12.html> at WSWS:

Bolivian president Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party
was forced to resign Sunday evening by the Bolivian military in a coup
backed by the United States. Last night, Morales tweeted that he is
“leaving for Mexico” after that country agreed to grant him asylum.

After three weeks of protests following the disputed October 20
presidential elections, the imperialist powers and their Bolivian client
elite have overthrown the government of Morales. In the context of a
deepening crisis of global capitalism and a resurgence of the class
struggle internationally, including recent mass strikes among miners and
doctors in Bolivia, the ruling class lost confidence that Morales and the
MAS apparatus can continue to suppress social opposition.

During his twelve years in office Evo Morales achieved quite a lot
<https://twitter.com/GaleWoo41521620/status/1193980822791045122> of good
things:

Illiteracy rates:
2006 13.0%, 2018 2.4%

Unemployment rates
2006 9.2%, 2018 4.1%

Moderate poverty rates
2006 60.6%, 2018 34.6%

Extreme poverty rates
2006 38.2%, 2018 15.2%

But Morales failed to build the defenses that are necessary to make such
changes permanent. The leadership of the military and police stood against
him. Why were these men in such positions?

Jeb Sprague @JebSprague - 20:19 UTC · Nov 11, 2019
<https://twitter.com/JebSprague/status/1193986589749211136>

The US coup connection
Officials who forced #Evo to resign worked as #Bolivia's Mil. Attachés in
DC. The CIA often seeks to recruit Attachés working in DC.
2013: Gen. Kaliman served as Mil. Attaché
2018: Police Com. Calderón Mariscal was Pres. of APALA in DC

The Agregados Policiales de América Latina (APALA) is supposed to fight
international organized crime in Latin America. It is curiously hosted in
Washington DC.

These police and military men cooperated with a racist Christian-fascist
multi-millionaire
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-foreign-support-fernando-camacho/>
to
bring Morales down.

Morales had clearly won a fourth term in the the October 20 elections. The
vote count was confusing
<http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/bolivia-elections-2019-11.pdf?v=2>
(pdf)
because it followed the process defined by the Organization of American
States:

The [Tribunal Supremo Electoral, or TSE] has two vote-counting systems. The
first is a quick count known as the Transmisión de Resultados Electorales
Preliminares (TREP, hereafter referred to as the quick count). This is a
system that Bolivia and several other Latin American countries have
implemented following OAS recommendations. It was implemented for the 2019
election by a private company in conjunction with the Servicio de Registro
Cívico (SERECÍ), the civil registry service, and is designed to deliver a
swift —but incomplete and not definitive— result on the night of the
elections to give the media an indication of the voting tendency and to
inform the public.

The early and incomplete numbers let it seem that Morales had not won the
10% lead he needed to avert a second round of voting. The rural districts
in which Morales has high support are usually late to report results and
were not included. The complete results showed that Morales had won more
than the 10% lead he needed to avoid a runoff.

Kevin Cashman @kevinmcashman - 1:36 UTC · Nov 11, 2019
<https://twitter.com/kevinmcashman/status/1193703940296073221>
Eventually, the official count was released: Morales won in the first round
47.08% to 36.51%. If you had been watching the polls before the election, 5
out of 6 of them predicted the same result. Weird to have a fraud that
matches up with polls.
Poll Tracker: Bolivia's 2019 Presidential Race
<https://www.as-coa.org/articles/poll-tracker-bolivias-2019-presidential-race>

To allege false election results to instigate color revolutions or coups is
a typical instrument of U.S. interference. In 2009 Mahmoud Ahmedinejad won
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8098305.stm> his second term in the
Iranian presidential elections. The U.S. supported oppositions raised a
ruckus even as the results fit perfectly with previous polling.

The OAS which recommended the quick count scheme that allows for such
manipulations receives 60% of its budget from Washington DC.

Western media do not call the coup in Bolivia a coup because it was what
the U.S. wanted to happen
<https://fair.org/home/the-bolivian-coup-is-not-a-coup-because-us-wanted-it-to-happen/>
:

Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest
of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a
coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate media are presenting the
weekend’s events in Bolivia.

No establishment outlet framed the action as a coup; instead, President Evo
Morales “resigned” (*ABC News*, 11/10/19
<https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-bolivias-military-morales-resign-66894544?cid=clicksource_4380645_null_headlines_hed>),
amid widespread “protests” (*CBS News*, 11/10/19
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ShBju8Ubhc>) from an “infuriated
population” (*New York Times*, 11/10/19
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/americas/evo-morales-bolivia.html>)
angry at the “election fraud” (*Fox News*,  11/10/19
<https://www.foxnews.com/world/bolivia-president-evo-morales-resigns-election-fraud-allegations>)
of the “full-blown dictatorship” (*Miami Herald*, 11/9/19
<https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andres-oppenheimer/article237168994.html>).
When the word “coup” is used at all, it comes only as an accusation from
Morales or another official from his government, which corporate media have
been demonizing since his election in 2006 (*FAIR.org*, 5/6/09
<https://fair.org/uncategorized/press-ignorance-competes-with-distortions-on-bolivia/>
, 8/1/12
<https://fair.org/home/the-threat-again-of-left-wing-latin-american-democracy/>
, 4/11/19
<https://fair.org/home/dictator-media-code-for-government-we-dont-like/>).

The poor and indigenous people who supported Morales will have little
chance against the far right para-militaries and police
<https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1194211935660728320> (vid) who
now go from door to door
<https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1194241731811794952> (vid) to
round up leftists and Morales supporters.

Evo Morales found asylum in Mexico. Bolivia will now turn into a neoliberal
hell and a quasi-dictatorship. It will take time, a lot of effort and
probably a civil war to regain what was lost through this coup.

What can one learn from this?

   - As one person remarked to me: "When one wants to win and keep a
   socialist revolution one has to bring guillotines."
   - Socialist movements who come into power must neutralize their biggest
   local enemies. They need to build their own defenses. They can not rely on
   those institutions, like the military and police, they inherit from
   previous regimes.
   - Such movements must never rely on U.S. affiliated organizations like
   the OAS or on military and police personal that had come under U.S.
   indoctrination.
   - A movement needs a public voice. It must build its own media locally
   and internationally.

Hugo Chavez knew this all this. As soon as he won the presidential election
in Venezuela he built the necessary forces to defend the state. It is the
only reason why his successor Nicolás Maduro defeated the coup attempt
against him and is still in power.

Evo Morales unfortunately failed to follow that path.

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